A wireless telecommunications network, such as a cellular wireless network, may be divided into a number of different wireless coverage areas, such as sectors. Each sector may be associated with a geographic area in which the signal strength from that sector is greater than that of other sectors. Thus, a mobile station located in a sector's geographic area may be served by the wireless network through that sector.
The sector serving the mobile station may also provide the mobile station with a neighbor list that identifies neighboring sectors. The mobile station may monitor these neighboring sectors, such as by periodically measuring the signal strength of each neighboring sector's respective pilot signal. The measured signal strength of a neighboring sector's pilot signal may be used to determine whether the neighboring sector is a candidate for a handoff.
In a conventional approach, a neighboring sector is considered a handoff candidate when its pilot signal strength exceeds a predefined threshold value. When the mobile station identifies a neighboring sector as a handoff candidate, the mobile station reports the sector's pilot signal strength to the wireless network, e.g., in a Pilot Strength Measurement Message (PSMM). The wireless network may then approve a handoff to the neighboring sector. The handoff to the neighboring sector could be either a hard handoff or a soft handoff.